By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A group of 11 states led by California on Thursday filed suit challenging a repeal by Congress of the state’s 2035 electric vehicle rules and heavy duty truck requirements.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday signed three resolutions approved by lawmakers barring California’s electric vehicle sales mandates and diesel engine rules, including its landmark plan to end the sale of gasoline-only vehicles by 2035.
“We officially rescue the U.S. auto industry from destruction by terminating the California electric vehicle mandate once and for all,” Trump said on Thursday.
“Trump’s all-out assault on California continues,” California Governor Gavin Newsom responded. “And this time he’s destroying our clean air and America’s global competitiveness in the process.”
The states asked a judge to declare that Trump’s repeal of waivers issued by the Environmental Protection Agency under President Joe Biden have no effect on state emissions rules.
“The Federal Government carried out an illegal playbook designed to evade lawful procedures that might prevent the ‘take down’ of disfavored California laws,” said the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in northern California.
The plaintiffs include New York, New Jersey, Colorado, Massachusetts and Washington state. The defendants are Trump, the EPA and its Administrator Lee Zeldin.
In March, the Government Accountability Office said the waivers cannot be repealed under the Congressional Review Act. Senate Republicans rejected the advice of the Senate parliamentarian in moving forward under the act.
Biden’s waiver allowed California to mandate that at least 80% of new vehicles sold in the state be electric by 2035, with the remainder being plug-in hybrids.
Trump also signed a resolution to rescind the EPA’s 2023 approval of California’s plans to require a rising number of zero-emission heavy-duty trucks, and another resolution on California’s low-NOx, or low-nitrogen oxide, regulation for heavy-duty highway and off-road vehicles and engines.
The lawsuit said regulations requiring “crucial emission
reductions from gasoline- and diesel-fueled vehicles got swept in for termination too.”
The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, representing General Motors , Toyota, Volkswagen, Hyundai, Stellantis and others, praised Trump’s signing, saying the EV rules were unachievable and made cars less affordable, limited consumer choice and reduced industry competition.
Alliance CEO John Bozzella said Trump “got behind this repeal before the EV mandates did real damage to the auto industry in America, stood up for customer choice and helped restore a degree of balance to U.S. emissions regulations.”
Experts and automakers say Trump’s repeal significantly reduces the value of Tesla’s EV emissions credits.
The EPA said the lawsuit lacked merit. “This is nothing more than California throwing a temper tantrum because the American people don’t want the state’s terrible policies,” agency spokeswoman Molly Vaseliou said.
A separate bill passed by the U.S. House in May would end a $7,500 tax credit for new EVs, impose a new $250 annual fee on EVs for road repair costs and repeal vehicle emissions rules designed to prod automakers into building more EVs. It would also phase out EV battery production tax credits in 2028. Another Senate proposal would eliminate penalties for not meeting federal fuel economy requirements.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Richard Chang)
